Okay everyone, this is the last chapter! Wow, I can't believe I made it to 50 this time, I had only planned 45! I hope you've all enjoyed this story as much as I've enjoyed writing it for you! I want to say thank you to each and every one of you who has reviewed over time, and who's constant support has what kept me going through this time. I want to thank everyone who has supported me since the beginning, and those who have prayed for me in my moments of hard times. Thank you everyone!
Disclaimer: I wish...
Paris was the most amazing thing I have ever seen. From the Eiffel tower to the Parc de la Villette, walking along the banks, fresh bread every day, everything, it was so picture perfect, like something out of a movie. Something out of the best movie.
And two short weeks later, it was over. Because Tony had to use the company jet, we decided Bruce would take a shot off of his EpiPen and we would fly first class, and try to keep him in a stress free environment until we got to the house in Dubai, where he could Hulk out on the beach to his heart's desire.
We could only get a flight with a layover in Cairo. When we got to Cairo, we stepped out of the plane and immediately two official looking men stopped us.
"Mrs. Banner?" one of them asked and I nodded hesitantly.
"Come with us please." the other ordered, rather than asked, and led us along. I could see people stopping to stare, until we got to a doorway. They led us down a windowless hall, past doors that led to I don't know where. I looked at Bruce who walked along next to me and I slipped my hand into his, making him look at me, and then smile reassuringly before kissing my temple.
"Mrs. Banner," the second guard said when we stopped in front of a door. "You go in here." he ordered and I looked at the door.
"I'm bringing my husband."
"You are ordered to go alone." the first guard said and I bit the inside of my cheek, before looking at Bruce who was doing one of his breathing exercises.
"I don't like it." he said softly and I nodded.
"I know." I replied before I kissed him lightly. "Remember Hawkeye's rule number one." I muttered in his ear. Because we had government badges we were able to get through security without going through metal detectors, and I had learned to be ready for anything at this point.
"Remember what I told you last night." he whispered back and I smiled before dropping my smile, and walking through the door.
The night before Bruce and I decided to take our final walk through Paris at night. With everything all lit up and amazing looking we were walking through Wonderland. Everything was bright and new, and awe inspiring. As we walked together, hand in hand, I couldn't help but look at him, my husband. He looked at me and smiled and I grinned as he let go of my hand so he could wrap his arm around my shoulders. We got to the large fountain and we sat down on the side of it.
"I'm so sad we have to leave tomorrow." I sighed. "Can't we send for the girls, and just stay here forever?" I asked and he laughed.
"Now there's a thought." he said and I smiled. "Of course, what would happen if the other guy were to come out?" he asked and I sighed.
"There is always that." I sighed. "Well, I suppose we'll just have to move to the south of France. There's much more open space for him there." I nodded and he laughed.
"Sounds like you've got it all figured out." he said and I nodded.
"Of course I do." I said and I stood up. He caught my hand and I looked at him as he pulled me back to where he was sitting. I looked down at him and gently stroked his face, making him look up at me. I ran my fingers through his hair, and he smiled as he looked up at me.
"Are you happy here?"
"Of course." I said with a smile. "Are you?"
"It's beautiful," he stood up and gently cupped my face, "You're beautiful, you're glowing." he said and I smiled widely. I started to open my mouth, and he pressed his finger to my lips. "Wait." he said softly. "I just want to say, this is our last night here, and I want you to know, here, that you are perfect." he said softly and I smiled. "I love you more than I ever thought I could love someone again, after my... After the other guy."
"Bruce-"
"Let me finish." he said and I nodded. "You gave me what I never thought I could have, and even when my existence threatened our way of living, you stepped up, you took charge and you showed the world that you weren't scared of it, or the other guy, or anything." he laughed and I bit my bottom lip. "And now I'm here with you, and I've been all over the world, I've seen it at its best, and I've seen it at its worst, but the best, has always, and will always be wherever you are." he continued and I swallowed as tears started welling up in my eyes. "You're amazing." he finished and I wrapped my arms around him, pulling him into the most perfect kiss I had ever had.
"Phil, what the fuck?" I sighed when I stepped into the room the guards at the Cairo airport had ordered me into.
"Good to see you too Director."
"Phil, I'm on my honeymoon!" I whined as I stood in the room, near the door.
"Your honeymoon just ended, you're on your way to your birthday celebration." he contradicted me.
"Either way, I shouldn't be having this meeting with you! I should be on my way to Dubai where I will have a very big alcoholic drink and lay by the pool!"
"We found some information that may- that will- interest you." he said and I sighed darkly before nodding.
"What did you find?" I asked and he gestured to the chair in front of him. I walked over to it and sat down, and he opened a file before handing it to me.
"When Bruce was first turned into the Hulk he ran away to Brazil, which you know," he told me and I nodded. "When he was there, he corresponded with a Cellular Biologist named Dr. Samuel Sterns, he sent Dr. Sterns a sample of his blood, and Dr. Sterns condensed and synthesized the blood samples. We thought we had destroyed all of the samples, well someone just popped up on our radar claiming not only to have the blood sample Leona took back in Nadine, but that last bag of synthesized blood." he explained as I read the file.
"Do you think it's Sterns?" I asked and he shrugged.
"Sterns was the one who turned Blonsky into the Abomination. We found his blood, mixed with your husband's blood on the floor of the lab, but we didn't find Sterns." he explained. "We think he may have been exposed to the blood, and we think he may be the one selling those samples."
"Where is he?" I asked and he flipped to the next page of the report. I looked it over and then looked back at him. He slid a black box across the table to me and I opened it up.
"Adamantium." he clarified as I picked up the specially designed arrow head. "Seemed to work for the Abomination."
"So it did." I muttered and I looked at him before nodding.
"Is that all Coulson?" I asked and he nodded.
"That's all Director." he replied and I nodded as I stood up.
"Will I see you in Dubai?" I asked and he smiled as he shook his head.
"No, someone needs to hold down the fort while you're gone."
"Right," I nodded. "Also, uh, any word on that thing I asked you to look into, for Peter?" I asked and he nodded.
"I'll have the report ready for you when you get home." he looked at his watch. "Looks like you've got a plane to catch." he said and I looked at my watch before nodding.
"So I do." I muttered before I smiled and gave him a handshake.
"I'll see you soon."
"You'll probably be getting my report sooner." I replied and he smiled. I put the arrowhead and the folder into my carryon bag before I walked out of the room and gestured to the guards who walked us back out of the labyrinth of hallways.
"What happened?" Bruce asked and I smiled innocently at him. "Was that Coulson?"
"As an active member of SHIELD I can neither deny nor affirm the location of any such employee." I said and he rolled his eyes. "But as his boss, yeah, that was Coulson." I finished and he laughed.
"What the hell does he want?"
"He just wanted to fill me in on an ongoing investigation." I replied, as I slipped my hand into Bruce's. He took it and held it as we were led straight to the front of the line at our gate, and let onto the airplane.
When we got to Dubai I was so happy to see Amanda and Kayla waiting at the airport with Happy.
"Mommy, Daddy!" Kayla shrieked as she ran at us, and Bruce picked her up quickly.
"Hey baby girl." he said with a grin and I kissed her cheek before catching Amanda who went flying right into me. "Oh god Pumpkin." I laughed and she grinned.
"Okay, shows, over." Happy said loudly to the people who were shooting us weird looks. "How was Paris Min?" he asked and I sighed.
"It was amazing." I sighed. "I have like fifteen trillion pictures to show everyone, just wait!" I grinned.
"Did you bring me a real beret?" Amanda asked and I nodded.
"Of course I did." I said. "And you, little Miss Thing, I bought you one too." I told Kayla who giggled. "Don't worry happy, you got one too." I said to him and he shook his head with a laugh.
"Oh boy." he said teasingly. We got our bags and Happy drove us to Tony's house on the beach, where the rest of the team was.
"You look so great!" Pepper said to me when I finished saying hello to everyone, and finally had a moment to talk to her.
"So do you Pep!" I said and she grinned.
"I love it here, I especially love being here and not worrying about Tony." she nodded and I laughed. "Your daughter has been keeping him busy- Well, both of them have, but Kayla, she has got him wrapped around her little finger, it's hilarious." she said and I laughed.
"You have Tony wrapped around your finger too." I said and she nodded.
"Yeah but not like this. It's actually pretty adorable." she said and lowered his voice. "Don't tell them I told you this, but I caught him, Thor, Steve and Clint all watching the kitty movie with her." she muttered and I burst out laughing.
"You did not!"
"Oh yeah, Nat, Jane and I got a picture." she nodded and I grinned.
"So, wait, Jane is here? Jane Foster?" I asked and Pepper nodded.
"Yeah, she's down at the beach with Natasha. Come on." Pepper said and I followed her down a set of outdoor stairs that led to the private beach.
"Natasha!" I called to her and she turned around and waved at me. I walked over to where she was sitting and she hugged me tightly.
"How was Paris?" she asked and I sighed.
"It was a dream." I sighed. "I wish we never had to leave."
"I know the feeling." Natasha said as Pepper went to get Jane who was knee deep in the water.
"Nat, I had a little meeting with Coulson awhile ago, I need to talk to you and Barton in awhile, something's come up."
"What's it about?" she asked.
"Business." I muttered and then smiled brightly as Pepper walked back over with the absolutely adorable, blonde haired Jane Foster. "Jane Foster, it is so good to finally meet you!" I said as I shook her hand.
"God, Thor has told me so much about you, I feel like I already know you." Jane grinned as she let go of my hand. "I- I hope that's not weird for me to say." she said quickly and I shook my head.
"Of course not, because he's done the same on our end." I replied.
"Come on, let's go back up, it's getting close to evening, and Tony's got reservations tonight." Pepper said suddenly and we all walked back up the stairs.
That night after a delicious dinner at an amazing restaurant I helped the girls settled in their room before going downstairs where Thor was building a fire in the pit in the back yard. "Tell me," he said as he tried to use the matches. "What do you think of Jane Foster?"
"I think she's great Thor." I said as I put my hand on his shoulder. "I can see why you wanted her protected so diligently."
"I shudder to think of what would happen should our enemy have gotten their hands on her." Thor admitted to me and I smiled at him, before taking the matches and striking one lit. I lit the newspaper in the fire in a few places, and then handed the box back to him. "Thank you." he said and I nodded softly, before sitting down in one of the chairs next to the fire.
"What are you two talking about?" I looked up as Jane walked over and gave Thor a kiss on the cheek. He smiled and I smiled seeing the look on his face.
"Just saying we're glad everything is over, and how happy I am to finally meet you." I told her and she smiled as she sat down in a chair near the fire. "I'll be right back; I'm going to get a drink." I stood up and went to the bar where I was pouring myself a glass of white wine when Tony walked over to me.
"How you holding up Kiddo?" he asked and I smiled.
"I'm good."
"Bruce told me about Coulson's little incident earlier. Wouldn't have happened if you were still working for me." he told me and I smiled as I set down the glass and the bottle.
"Tony, you know that even underneath all of the bad decisions, SHIELD is a good thing." I told him and he nodded. "I feel like, I can help clear away those bad decisions, and then when I have, and I've got someone trustworthy to run it, someone who knows the official consulting hours, someone who can handle the fact that all of us have lives outside of the agency, then I'll come back to work for you." I told him and he sighed before nodding.
"No one will fit that criteria." he told me and I frowned lightly. "I'm not saying that to be discouraging, I'm just saying, there's no one like you Min." he told me and I smiled. "Now, let's go introduce Thor to an earth tradition. S'mores." he said as he held up a bag of mini marshmallows.
"Tony, mini marshmallows?" I asked as he looked down at them.
"This will not do. This never would have happened if you were still my assistant." he said before retreating to the kitchen. I laughed and shook my head before picking up the glass of wine I had filled up and took a sip of it.
About an hour and a half later I was able to slip away from everyone, as did Natasha and Clint, and I brought them to the bar, where I handed the file over to Natasha. I filled them in on everything Coulson had told me and they listened carefully, like I knew they would.
"You want us to kill him Min?" Clint asked and I hesitated.
"If he tries a counter attack, then yes. Our main goal is retrieving the blood, synthesized or not, it's still dangerous to have out in the world, and the same about the sample from Madame Hydra." I told them before sliding the box over to Clint. He opened it and nodded as he closed it quickly, his eyes shooting over to the door where Bruce was walking in.
"I thought we said no business." he said as his eyes landed on the folder. Natasha closed it quickly and excused herself while Clint stuck the small box in his pocket.
"It's nothing that will take too long. Right?" I asked Clint who smiled.
"Simple Grab and go." he shrugged.
"Right." he nodded slowly. He walked over to the bar and put a few ice cubes in a glass before pouring a scotch.
"You don't drink." I said and he capped the bottle.
"You don't do business on vacation." he said and I sighed before he looked over at me and smiled.
"It's for Tony." he said and I shook my head with a small smile as he wrapped his arm around my shoulders and pulled me to him, before kissing my temple.
"So Tony's planning a huge party huh?" I asked and he looked down at me in disbelief.
"Who told you?" he asked and I grinned.
"You just did." I said before walking outside. "Tony, I said no parties!" I said to him and he groaned looking at Bruce in disbelief.
"Come on man, you're killing me!" he said and Bruce shook his head as he handed the drink to Tony and then sat down next to me.
"I don't know how she does it." Bruce sighed and looked at me as I grinned.
A few days later Natasha and Clint went to do their job, they returned two days later, looking tired, and frustrated, but they had in their possession a metal briefcase with a cooling mechanism, holding a bag of synthesized blood, and a small petri dish with another blood sample.
"Did you get Sterns?" I asked and they both shook their heads.
"He got away Min." Clint said softly.
"That's alright, we'll keep an extra close eye on him, he'll make mistakes." I said softly. "Who was the buyer?"
"It was a private business." he told me.
"How do they have any reason to be using this?" I muttered as I looked at the paperwork inside of the briefcase before looking up as Bruce walked in. I closed the briefcase and he stood there for a moment as Hawkeye and I both looked at him.
"Why do I feel like I always walk in at the worst possible moment?" he asked and I chuckled before I shook my head.
"Come on in." I said and he walked in. "Bruce, you have a right to know." I slid the briefcase over to him and he looked at it for a moment before opening it.
"Sterns?" he asked and I nodded. "Did you get him?"
"Gone with the wind, but not for long." I promised and he nodded.
"This is what Coulson wanted from you last week?" he asked and I nodded.
"Sterns was about two hours out from here." I told him and he sighed.
"Which is why SHIELD didn't have a problem with you leaving the states for a month. They knew they could get you to keep up with whatever they told you to do." he looked at me and I touched his hand.
"Bruce," I said hesitantly. "Is everything okay?"
"Fine. Why wouldn't it be?" he asked as he pushed the briefcase away. He pulled his hand from mine lightly and walked outside leaving me there with Hawkeye who shook his head, took the briefcase and them made a shooing motion at me.
I nodded and walked outside, following Bruce to the bench where he sat down. He was facing the ocean, watching Thor, Jane, Pepper and Tony on the beach with the girls, I stood next to him, and he wordlessly slid over, giving me room to sit down next to him.
"You want to talk about it?" I asked as I gently stroked his cheek.
"It's just SHIELD." he said softly. "And, me, and, everything." he sighed sounding slightly defeated. "No matter what I try to do, someone out there always has something to say about me trying to live my life." he looked at me, and I noticed how very tired he looked. "And now they've pulled you into it." he said and I smiled.
"No honey, I chose to get involved." I told him. "Do you remember the first time I saw the other guy?" I continued and he tensed up slightly, but nodded. "Do you remember how SHIELD took you in that day?" I asked. "And I didn't want you to go in. I didn't want you to go, because I was scared you'd never come back. I thought, Nick Fury would send you off to some island in the middle of nowhere, or back to Calcutta or something." I sighed. "But when you came back that night, I promised myself that I would help you in whatever way I could. SHIELD didn't drag me into their little group, I chose to go because I thought if there was any way possible for me to help you, then that was it." I told him and he smiled gently as I cupped his face and ran my thumb over his unshaven for a few days cheek. I leaned forward and kissed his cheek, loving the prickly feeling of a few days old beard under my lips, he turned to look at me and I wrapped my arms around his neck, pulling him closer to me. "There's always going to be someone with something to say," I told him as he wrapped his arms around my waist, pulling me closer. "But that doesn't mean you can't go ahead and live your life. They can say whatever they have to say, but you've got people who love and care about you on your side, who will do anything to make sure those people never get a chance to say it to your face." I lightly brushed my lips against his. He leaned forward, catching my lips with his and I smiled, giving in to the kiss. When he finally broke away from me I gently kissed his chin.
"This doesn't mean I want you to stay involved with them forever." he informed me and I laughed.
"Oh god no." I laughed and rested my head on his shoulder. "No, I really would like another child someday." I told him. "But I don't want to be the pregnant head of a Government organization that technically shouldn't exist." I laughed and he shook his head. "What do you think about having more kids?" I asked looking up at him and he quickly moved his arm to under my knees, lifting me into his arms as he stood up. "Bruce!" I shrieked with a laugh.
"I wouldn't mind giving it a shot." he said and I giggled as he carried me upstairs.
When we got back to the States, I was brought into this life of leading SHIELD from New York, I had to go to orientations with new recruits, I had to go over tons of paperwork, and checking in on cases, seeing where our outstanding agents were, make everyone go to their SHIELD appointed psychiatric reports, which, that was a job in itself.
"Phil," I said to Coulson one afternoon as I signed some papers. "I've been thinking I should go over some new missions."
"It would probably be a good idea."
"There is no doubt in my mind that you read all of them." I said and he smiled.
"I have a fair idea of some of the missions we've got." he said and I nodded.
"Good, you can fill me in." I said as I stood up and walked to the elevator. An hour and a half later Phil found me at a coffee vending machine and handed me four thick files. "What are these?" I asked looking at them.
"Outstanding issues that need some looking into." he informed me. "I thought you might be interested in these."
"Female with extraordinary power joining a gang of local hoodlums, possible mutant, possible extra terrestrial," I read one file. "Vigilante in Hell's Kitchen," I read another. "Another vigilante who apparently has no conscious," I said as I read over some of the third file. "What's that?"
"Sorry, spilled some coffee." he said looking at where I was pointing. "We think he's an ex marine. Maybe special ops." he informed me and I nodded.
"Who's this?" I asked with a small frown. "Vernon Nolan?"
"He's an assassin, he's been off our radar for while, but there was a shooting recently that had his signature. Talk to Hawkeye about that one, he's got a past with him." Coulson informed me.
"How high of a priority is he?" I asked.
"To be honest, Hell's Kitchen is probably the one we want to focus on right now." he told me and I nodded as I closed the files.
"Sounds good. Let's get to work." I said and followed him to a large room where people put up information from this vigilante on the screen.
"Director Banner, the council is on." someone said to me and I sighed before I walked to the room full of computer screens. brBRBr "Director Banner." one of them greeted me stiffly.
"Council." I greeted all of them. "What's the occasion?" I asked.
"We noticed you didn't include Dr. Stern's statement on your report." one of the women told me and I nodded.
"That's true. Dr. Sterns is not in our custody, but I have agents remaining on this case at all times. It is a very high priority."
"What sort of Intel do you have on him?" one of the councilmen asked.
"We believe he has been disfigured as results of the exposure to condensed synthesized samples of Dr. Banner's blood, we believe he resents that, and is going by the name Leader." I reported.
"Because of the Gamma signatures you should have no problem finding him. Why is it taking so long?"
"We have reason to believe he has internal help."
"Internal in your own division?"
"No sir," I smiled at the general. "In yours." I told him. "And when we find out who is helping him, I'm going to put the entire team on that person, and they had better pray that I'm able to call them off in time." I told the general darkly, before I turned to the door.
"Director Banner?" one of the councilwomen called and I looked at her monitor. "I do hope you aren't taking this too personally."
"The only thing I take personally, ma'am, was finding the report stating you all gave permission to try to exterminate our base in Canada." I told her, and all of them. "Don't think you aren't all under surveillance as well." I stated before turning and walking out of the room.
When I got to my office I picked up a package that was wrapped in brown paper on my desk before getting my jacket and pulling it on. I went downstairs and into Time Square before calling a cab. When I got home Bruce had just picked up Kayla from preschool and she was helping set the table.
After dinner and after getting her tucked into bed I went back downstairs and got the package from my jacket pocket before going to the living room when Bruce was sitting on the couch, writing down something in a notebook. I sat down on the couch next to him and held it out. "What's this?" he asked.
"Open it." I told him and he unwrapped it, exposing the back of a picture frame, he pulled it from its packaging and turned it over before almost dropping it.
"How did you get this?" he asked as he stared down at the picture of his mother.
"The night at the cemetery, when I was poking around the car, I found it shoved between the seats." I told him and he looked at me. "I thought it would be better for you to have, because I know you don't have any pictures of her." I told him and he looked back at the picture, running his thumbs over the image of his mother.
"You would have loved her."
"I already do." I told him. "Without her, I wouldn't have you, or Kayla." I told him as I wrapped my arms around his middle. He leaned back on the couch, wrapping his arms around me, but holding onto the picture frame. "Do you like it?" I looked up at him and he nodded.
"I never thought I'd see her face again." He admitted. About an hour later we were still laying on the couch, I was mostly asleep, but was still tracing shapes on his chest with my fingers while he wrote in his notebook, his mother's picture was propped up on the coffee table in front of us. "So what's SHIELD up to tomorrow?" he asked and I looked up at him.
"Interrogating a known assassin we believe was sent to take out one of our agents who is currently on a mission." I said casually. "If they'd have gotten any closer, her entire cover would have been blown." I sighed and he nodded. "You?"
"Working with an unstable element to see if it can be used in a new line of Arc Reactors." He replied and I nodded, before I leaned up and kissed his chin.
"Be careful honey." I said and he smiled as he looked down from his notebook. He leaned down and kissed me before I lay my head back against his chest.
My MeeMaw once told me I would grow to cherish the little moments if I continued to live the life I had chosen. At first I didn't know what she meant by that, but looking back on everything that had happened, and knowing everything that would continue to happen, I realized what she meant, and I realized she was right.
I've lived a life of huge things happening all around me, of enormous events, and living among the people who would go down in history, and if I had to pick some of the greatest things to have happened to me, I'd say that those little moments were we could relax, and be ourselves and just be in love, those were the moments worth living for.
And there it is, the end! I really really hope you enjoyed this story! It took me forever to write the ending, and I threw a subtle hint towards the next story I'm posting. It's going to be a Hawkeye/OC story- Sorry to all your ClintTasha fans, but I had the idea for this, and I thought it was too good not to put into a story.
The story is going to be called "My Aim is True" and I hope you'll read it when I post it. It takes place in the same universe as my other stories, though it will start out before the events of "Which Me Do You Like?".
Anyways, I hope you'll give it a chance, and I hope you've enjoyed this, the last chapter of Ever Present Past.
Thanks again everyone!